Alutecnos + Finnor Handle = "Finnutecnos"

[Rothmar2]

As requested by Alan, have edited and moved some pictures here of a modification I did to a Finnor handle to fit a Shakespeare/Alutecnos Albacore 50. Shakespeare must have done a deal with Alutecnos some years ago to distribute a run of reels for Australia (and elsewhere?), in a similar vein as Avet is doing with Black Magic (N.Z. market). Have seen a few of these in Aus. over the years, but have never opened one up until recently. Sorry I didn't get some internal shots while servicing. Will endevour to add to this when I get the reel back for a future service, may even do a tute if there is enough interest.

The story with this particular reel was it had been sitting in a mate's shed for years. It had its original handle broken somewhere along the line, and somehow my friend aquired a Finnor Marquesas handle to fit as a replacement, but had never got around to doing it. Seeing as I had been servicing his other reels, I took it upon myself to get this one back in working order.

First step was to make a stainless adapter to fit the reels drive shaft. This was achieved by a couple of hours of careful hand filing. I polished the piece once I was happy with the fit onto the reels drive shaft. (the "square" piece in the photos.



Next up was to file out the Finnor handle to a snug fit the stainless adapter. Much easier to file aluminium!
I then machined up a cover plate to fit into the recess of the Finnor handle (where the two speed shift mech. would go?). I allowed a small gap to machine up a plastic spacer to keep the ally and stainless apart. I also made another to fit between the drive shaft spacer and the handle. To hold the whole lot together I machined and re-tapped a M8 stainless cap head bolt (only thing I could lay my hands on at the time) to M6 to fit the handle bolt hole on the drive shaft. Pix show assembly.........







I also broke out the four jaw chuck and machined up a new reel clamp, as the original had broken through two of the clamp bolt holes. This one is much sturdier than the original.




Other reels I have modded are Tica ST 16's. Mods include reducing the aggresive drag cam to suit fishing 8kg line. Also have trimmed one of the drag cover plates to centralise the spool better. Very keen to get onto someone here who does aftermarket handles, as the original Tica ones are crap, and get flogged out too easily and become "sloppy".

Modded the drag cam on a beautiful Penn 80 STW, and fitted new pre-load washers to make the drag more progressive. It was "dropping off" and "coming on" far too quick.

I couldn't have done any of these things without the resources available on this site.

A big thank you to all who contribute here!

[wallacewt]

hi rothmar2
you give us all hope.gd stuff

[alantani]

pretty slick!

[reelgood]

pretty slick!

was going to say the same thing, that machined piece really makes it look nice

[Rothmar2]

Noticed that during the course of the season that the ratchet on this reel became less reliable, and then ceased altogether. When I initially got this reel from my mate, the ratchet hammer was seized in its housing. The knob for turning the ratchet in and out was also somewhat difficult to get a decent grip on, particularly with wet hands, so decided to fix this all in one go.

Take the reel apart, put reel into free-spool, and back preset right off



The ratchet housing is on the right. It rotates the hammer into and out of the radius of the ratchet indents that are milled into the side of the spool.



Loosen the cap head bolts from the ratchet housing



Remove the housing. Note the step in the recess which the housing turns againt, and stops axial movement of the housing.



The rotator knob also has a hole drilled into it to hold the spring for the hammer. Its made from chrome plated brass



Once again the hammer was seized in its recess. Didn't take too much of a tap to free it. Very surprised this occurred as I had thoroughly greased this before the reel being used. The fit tolerance is very fine



Some slight signs of  salt entry into the housing, and the dreaded white powder. Really surprised this made it in here??



Decided to open up the tolerance a little. Gave the whole hammer a quick skim on the lathe, removed 0.1mm from the diameter





I also machined up a new knurled knob out of stainless, one in which would protrude a bit further out from the side plate to allow more grip from the fingers.....(insert all obvious jokes here!)



Have been looking around for a suitable sized O-ring that I can machine a groove into this new stainless part in an attempt to minimise the chance of salt water making its way into the ratchet housing. This will seal on the bore of the sideplate.

Pack the housing with grease and install skimmed hammer





Install new rotation knob



And bolt back together



Replace the sideplate, and bolt up.
This is the extra hold that can now be achieved. Previously you could barely get at it with much more than your fingernails

[Alto Mare]

You do some beautiful work Rothmar, thanks for sharing your excellent skills with us.
Nice to have you here.
Sal

[redsetta]

x2 on Sal's post.
Thanks Rothmar.

[Rothmar2]

Thanks for kind words Sal and Redsetta.

Although my "skills" pale into insignificance compared to others on this site.
I only hope that by sharing a bit here, someone else might be inspired, or get some help from what I've posted.
I've gained so much more from this site than I could ever hope to give back.

[CapeFish]

You guys should all get together and have a reel conference aiming to build the ultimate star and lever drag. With all the amazing mods seen here, from the gear modding with dremels, double dogs etc it will surely result in something amazing.